“OW! What the…” he said, panic setting in on him. “What the hell did you do that for?!” Abel heard Isla yell at someone. “We’re just giving the new guy a welcome,” the unnamed person said to Isla. “So you’re just gonna be rude like your average bullies from a book? That’s so lame!” Isla yelped as she was pushed into the wall, and Abel got up from the ground.

  “What are you guys doing?” He asked the unknown assailant. “Huh, seems like you got your directions right,” another person said, approaching Abel, as he walked past the man pinning down Isla. “Yeah, my ears work. Anyways, who are you?” The halls were clearing out, the noise that previously occupied them heavily reduced.

  “It’s John and Friedrich,” Isla said, her voice slightly quivering. “Did we say you could talk?” “The one who’s pinning me to the wall is Friedrich and John is the one next to you!” Friedrich sighed. “Whatever.” He kneed Isla in the stomach, and she yelled in pain. “What the hell?!” Abel shouted, and in the next moment he lunged at Friedrich.

  As he tackled him to the ground, Friedrich cried in pain. The wind got knocked out of both of them, but more so Friedrich. Abel caught his breath quickly and started wailing on Friedrich, punching his chest. Friedrich grabbed both of his arms, stopping him from moving them, and headbutted him in the nose. Abel got knocked back in pain, and clenched his nose. John let go of Isla, and picked up Abel into a full nelson, allowing Friedrich to recover. Abel struggled against his hold, grunting as he tried to break free.

  “You fuckin’ bastard.” Friedrich said as he approached Abel. He punched him in the face. “Don’t ever disrespect me again.” He punched him again. Abel winced. “Know your place, you filthy animal.” He kneed him in the stomach, and Abel got the breath knocked out of him again. Abel spat out some blood, his gums bleeding. He breathed heavily. “Go fuck yourself, you sack of shit.” Friedrich’s face contorted in anger, and he repeatedly kneed Abel in the stomach, Abel grunting with each blow.

  Suddenly, two teachers came about, and saw them. “HEY!” They shouted at the attackers, and they dropped Abel and ran away. “GET BACK HERE!”

  Isla saw Abel lying on the ground, and sat down next to him. “Abel, are you okay?!” She touched his face, seeing it bloodied and bruised. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault.” Isla whispered to herself, a tear shedding down her face. “No, it’s fine…” Abel muttered, barely able to speak. The bells rang again. Isla tried picking Abel up, but he was a lot heavier than she expected. “Please, get up, we have to get you to the nurse, or something!” Isla’s voice carried heavy panic as she spoke, trying to lift Abel up.

  Abel started to get up, and Isla aided him in it. “Thank you…” he murmured to her. Isla shushed him, “don’t talk, you might make your damage worse, especially your mouth, or something, I don’t know!” She walked with him leaning on her shoulder, trying to support him. The nurses’ station was closeby, and she took him there.

  As they entered the room, the nurse looked up and gasped, her eyes widening heavily. “What the f… Heck happened?” She took him from Isla’s hands, and placed him on a bed. She quickly washed her hands as she was listening to Isla. “Someone tripped Abel— and I tried defending him— and I got hit— in the stomach, and Abel tried defending me— and he tackled the guy hitting me, and I ran to get help—.”

  Isla was struggling to speak, her bawling making it hard to breathe, she was gasping between words. “It's okay, I understand.” As Isla was explaining, the nurse examined Abel. She took off his shirt and saw many bruises. “Goodness, he was hit a lot.” She squinted at his stomach, the biggest bruise healing at a visible rate. “Huh, he’s healing pretty fast.” She opened his mouth and saw his gums bleeding. “Weird…”

  The nurse turned to Isla, who was still crying, although it was a lot less. “Did you see who it was?” Isla was holding a box of tissues that the nurse had in her room. She blew her nose. “Yes, it was Friedrich Württemberg and John Fischer.” She threw the tissue away and patted her tears away with a new one, her makeup smudged slightly down her face. The nurse sighed, “of course it was them.” The nurse checked his gums again, seeing his gums no longer bleeding.

  “Hmm…” She concentrated magic into her eyes, the irises turnt blue, to scan his body. Her eyebrows furrowed strangely. “Well, it looks like he’s healing pretty fast… He should be fine in an hour, maybe even sooner.” Her eyes returned to their usual black, her voice a slight bit of curiosity in it. “Can he use magic?” Isla was still blowing her nose and wiping her tears. “No, he said he couldn’t.” Her voice was still quivering. “He’s healing awfully fast for someone who can’t use magic.” The nurse noticed something near his head, and she turned his head to the side, using magic to scan him again. Isla saw this and said, “He’s also blind, Ms. Sachsen.” Her eyes squinted. “It seems like his optical nerves are fine, and his eyes are in great condition, so I don’t understand why he would be blind.” She turned his head more, looking closer. “Wait…”

  She looked toward his chest, and realized his heart wasn’t beating. “OH SHIT.” She clasped her hands together and started doing chest compressions, and Abel woke up and inhaled, yelling. He slapped her hands off of him and pushed her off. “Who is that?” Abel shouted. “It’s Ms. Sachsen, I’m the school nurse. Isla carried you here.” He sighed and laid back down. “Your heart wasn’t beating so I was doing chest compressions.” She looked back at his chest and her eyes widened in shock and fear. “It’s… Still not doing that.” Abel chuckled. “Ahhh, that’s funny. Aren’t hearts supposed to do that?” Everyone was quiet, as if speaking too loud would break Abel like a wine glass. “Guys…?”

  Isla was frozen, and the nurse just sighed. “I’m too tired for this. You look fine, so just, leave, I guess.” Abel had a look of confusion on his face. “Uhm, okay…?” Abel got off of the bed, and looked at Isla. “Are you okay?” Isla jumped slightly as if she was just caught off-guard. Her tears had stopped flowing, she finished wiping her face and blew her nose. “Yes, I am fine, I think.” She eyed Abel up and down, whispering to herself, “damn…” “What was that?” “N-nothing!” A blush spread across her face as she looked away from him.

  Abel turned to Ms. Sachsen, “can I have my shirt back?” She grabbed his shirt off of the floor and handed it to him. “Sorry, I dropped it on the floor while trying to examine your injuries. You seem to be fine now, your wounds appear to be healing correctly.” “Thanks again.” Abel put on his shirt and scratched his chin.

  Isla walked up to Abel and hugged him. “I was kind of worried, you got beat up pretty bad Abel…” Abel tensed up and gave Isla a pat on the back. “It’s okay, I’m fine now? I think. I fell asleep on the, uh, thing the nurse laid me down on. I’m hungry, is there any food anywhere?” Isla backed away from Abel and the nurse chuckled to herself. “Yeah, we got crackers, but nothing real.” She reached for a box of saltine crackers and handed it to Abel.

  “Try to eat slowly, alright? I inspected your body and none of your organs seemed damaged, although I am a bit concerned about your heart not beating. I honestly am just too tired for this, dude.” Isla raised her hand as if she was in class. Ms. Sachsen turned to Isla, “you don’t have to raise your hand to speak, you can just talk.” “Oh, right, sorry, what do you think is wrong with his heart?” “I don’t know, but it seems fine as well, I don’t know how he’s alive…”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She grabbed a needle from her drawer and put it on a table next to Abel. She picked up some alcohol, opened it, and put a rag over it. She tipped it over, and the rag absorbed some alcohol. “Do you mind if I draw some blood, Abel?” Abel looked slightly confused. “No? I don’t mind?”

  She lifted his sleeve and wiped the rag over his arm, cleaning it, before putting the needle in, and taking some blood. Abel winced slightly. She inspected it, and it had a slight glow to it, and the blood was slightly purple, much different compared to the average human. “Hm. Abel might be mixed, but no other races that I know of have glowing blood. It might be magical residue or something of the like.”

  She pulled out a container and put the syringe in it. “I’m gonna send this to an actual hospital.” “Woah, I didn’t say you could do that. Isn’t that illegal?” “No? We’re allowed by the kingdom to send important things to hospitals or them for medical reasons, I don’t have the magical power to examine it properly.”

  Suddenly, there was a booming voice overhead. “Can we please see Abel Castes and Isla star in the front office please? Abel Castes and Isla Star to the front office.” Abel jumped slightly and covered his ears. “Gosh, that was loud.” “Yeah yeah, stay still.” She grabbed his arm and applied a bandage to it and patted it. “Get outta here before they bother me.”

  Isla shivered slightly, and was scared of what might happen to her. “Alright Isla, let’s go.” Abel approached the door and grabbed the hinge, opening it. He went to the side and allowed Isla to leave. “Thanks…” she murmured. “How’d you know where the door was?” Abel scratched his neck. “You know how bats have echolocation? I kinda have something like that, but it only really works when it’s somewhat quiet and I make a noise, and there’s not too many sound absorbing things so the sound can bounce off of it and reach my ears.”

  Isla gasped quietly, “woah, that’s so cool…” “I guess. I’d still rather be able to actually see, though.” Isla looked down in embarrassment, her face showing empathy for Abel. “Sorry…” she murmured to him. “It’s not your fault, you’re not why I’m blind.”

  Abel followed Isla as they went down multiple hallways before reaching the main office. Isla opened the door for him, and he entered ahead of her. The staff member that Mary talked to earlier was still there, and she looked up from some paperwork she was signing. “Back again already? Rough first day, huh?” Abel sighed. “Yeah, not very good. Where am I supposed to go? They called me up here.” She pointed to a room. “Just go in there.” Abel threw away the box of crackers, as he finished eating them, and Isla grabbed Abel’s hand, “Come on.”

  She forcefully walked him into the room the staff member pointed at. When she entered she saw the principal, as well as Friedrich and John. Friedrich and John’s conversation ended abruptly when they entered, and they stared at Abel and Isla. “Please, sit down.” The principal said, patiently awaiting their arrival.

  Abel sat in the chair in front of the principal’s desk, and Isla sat in the one next to him. The principal was slightly hunched over his desk, his hands clasped together as his elbows rested on the desk. “Do you know why I called you in here?” Isla scratched her arm nervously. “Is it because Friedrich and John attacked me?” Friedrich chuckled softly while John kept a straight face. “No, quite the opposite. They told us that you randomly lunged at them and they had to defend themselves.” “What?”

  Abel was in pure disbelief at what he just heard. “No? They tripped me and pinned Isla to a wall, and I made them stop and they started beating me up.” Isla was lightly quivering, scared of the punishment they may receive. “That’s not what they told me. They said you viciously attacked them and they had to work together to take you down.”

  The principal opened a drawer in his desk, pulling out a piece of paper. “We have the incident report right here, Abel. There’s no need to lie, you’ll only make the situation worse.” Abel clenched his fist at this side, Isla growing a more worried look on her face. She looked like she was on the verge of tears, while Friedrich was still giggling to himself. John jabbed Friedrich’s side, Friedrich murmuring an “Ow…” The principal kept his composure. “You can sign this incident report and your punishment will be lessened if you just admit to it.” Abel bit his tongue, then got an idea.

  “But I am blind, how am I supposed to be able to sign it?” The principal’s face flashed a smile briefly, before it returned to neutral. “We know you can write things, Abel.” Friedrich saw you in your first period writing down ‘school sucks.’” Abel stifled a laugh, quickly resuming a straight face. The principal raised an eyebrow at him. “I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself. I am Joseph Santos, but you will address me as ‘Mr. Santos,’ or ‘Principal Santos.’”

  Isla was incredibly stressed, on the verge of tears. Abel could almost hear Isla’s heartbeat; it was beating so hard. He grabbed Isla’s hand and intertwined fingers with her. She locked up, her muscles tightening. She glanced over at Abel, and relaxed a bit. Principal Santos raised an eyebrow at them. He cleared his throat.

  “As I was saying,” he said sternly, “Abel, you’re going to have to sign this. And since Isla was also at the scene, she’s technically your accomplice, so she has a separate waver from yours she needs to sign as well.” Abel scoffed. “I’m not signing this, they attacked me first.” “That’s not what the staff members told me. If you sign it you may get a reduced punishment.” Abel grabbed the paper and gave it to Isla. “Can you read this for me?” The principal’s eyes widened, “Hey, no, you don’t have to do all of that.” Isla started reading it, “Basically all it’s saying is what Friedrich and John said that happened, but at the bottom it says that you’re taking all responsibility for what they did.”

  The principal sighed. “I’m still gonna have to give Abel a punishment for engaging in a fight with other students.”

  “But they started it! I was just defending Isla and myself!”

  “Zip it, before I decide to do something more than just a detention or suspension.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Abel gritted his teeth, and took the paper from Isla. Santos pointed at the bottom of the paper, his finger above a dotted line. Abel shakily signed it, his writing almost unintelligible. He took it and examined it. “Good enough. You will return for your classes for today and you’ll be suspended for three days after today.” Isla gasped in shock.

  “That’s unfair!”

  “And Isla, you’ll get detention for the next three days, including today, as well. Now, scurry off to class.”

  “But-”

  “Go to class before I make you and Abel’s punishment worse.”

  “Come on, Isla.”

  Abel still had held Isla’s hand this entire time, using his left hand to write everything and take the paper from her. The poor quality in writing was due to him being right handed. He stood up, and so did Isla. He opened the door and walked out, taking Isla with him. After they left the front office, Isla grumbled.

  “This is so stupid! It’s because Friedrich and John are from noble families and their families are funding the town. I hate rich people!”

  “It’s whatever, we can’t change anything.”

  “We have to, what they’re doing is stupid and unfair!”

  “I’m sorry, but just think for a second. We don’t have any money, we aren’t strong. We can’t do anything about it.”

  They continued walking down the hall, in silence. Their hands intertwined, they walk to their next class.